Valentine's Poems and Homeschooling

As a homeschooling mom, I am always dreaming up assignments that challenge and entertain my children as they learn new skills. Yesterday I told them that, because it was Valentine's Day, they ought to write a love poem about someone they love in our family. After listening to the groans for a bit, I told them that writing poems was easy. I wrote one just to prove that I could do it, too.

I know it is not brilliant, but it expresses my heart towards my husband.

Dear Rick:

Today my thoughts are filled with you -
Your smile, your hugs, your kisses, too.
My mind goes back over many years
and ponders all of our hopes and fears,
Then I am led to praise my God
Who led us on the path we've trod...
I thank Him for the trials and joys
we went through, raising girls and boys,
And growing in amazing grace,
as we learned His word and sought His face.
So, husband dear, protector and friend,
I love you now, and will to the end.

- Love, Janet
Nice and loving, right?

Then Tiana, aged 8, wrote:

Valentine's Day is warm and snug
When you give your family a great big hug.
If my sister is sad, I make her happy,
Soon she will be very laughy!
I love my sisters and my brothers -
Don't want to live with any others.
When I grow up and move away,
I'll always remember this happy day.

Then Linda, 16, chimed in with:

So Valentine's has come again
And here we are, the same,
But really, do we truly know
The reason for the name?

We can all speak of pretty flowers,
Chocolates, and sweet meats,
But is that what it's all about--
The getting of good treats?

Is it really about hearts
And every sort of flower?
I think that it is more than that -
More than a candy shower!

God gave me family, and friends, too,
And I am very happy,
For I love them and they love me,
And that's not VERY sappy!

You may think that it's about
Sunshine and people kissing.
But I will tell you truthfully,
You don't know what you're missing.

So while I will not write to you
To ask if you'll be mine,
I'm saying to you anyhow,
Happy Valentine!

But, the boys kept complaining about how hard it is to write a poem,
so Linda whipped off another one:

THE SELFISH VALENTINE:

Chocolate is good to eat
It's a very tasty treat
I wish that it would all be mine
So eat your heart out, Valentine!

I'll steal away those candies, too
From all the stores; none left for you!
So what if I will get too fat;
I don't really care about that.

I'll never send out any cards
I'll cut them all up into shards
I'll give you apples off the tree--
But all the good stuff is for me!

I'll never take your arm in mine,
I'd say 'Go spit, dumb Valentine!'
And if I'd make you cry with that,
I wouldn't care; cause I'm too fat!

I can't care less for crummy poems
I'll feed them all to ugly gnomes!
I don't care for words so sweet;
Just give me all the tasty treats!

You have to realize that Linda is a very loving and kind girl...she
had help being so mean from her two brothers!

Elena, aged 10, wrote:

Tiana, Tiana,
Love her like lasagne!
She is my sister
and shiny like glitter.

When she gives me a smile
Life is simply worthwhile!
We have lots of fun
in the field when we run.

She is my best friend
and will be till the end,
I think she's so fine
Happy Valentine, sister of mine.

Then Patrick, 12 years old, added this poem to the collection:

I love my brother like no other,
And here's the reason why:
Of all the fellows in the world,
He is one special guy!

He comforts me when I am sad
Corrects my heart when I am mad!
When my room's a mess, he helps me clean
And never is too terribly mean!

The best thing about him is the way he plays
Lego and war guys in interesting ways;
He is a bit bossy, it is true,
But Daniel, there's no better friend than you!

Now, I know that these are not the least bit professional, but did you catch the most important message in each of them? My children love each other. My children are best friends with their siblings.

One of the greatest things about homeschooling is the close relationships that are developed as kids work together, day in and day out, doing chores and schoolwork and projects and housework. They all have friends outside our home, but their very best friends are their sisters and brothers.

I thank God for that.

Lord, thank You for leading us on this amazing journey of raising and teaching 12 beautiful children. Thank You that You showed us long ago that our children were to be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Homeschooling has given us time to teach our children how to love You and love each other. May they always continue to glorify You, and may they enjoy You forever.

In Christ, I pray, amen.

Which Book of the Bible are you?

http://quizilla.com/users/reflectedgrace/quizzes/Which%20book%20of%20the%20Bible%20are%20you?/

I took this little quiz to see what book of the Bible I am.

I am Ephesians

"Chances are you've made a couple of whopper mistakes in your life. . . 'cause it's usually people like you who really understand their position in Christ. You know it's not by might, not by power, and certainly not through works, but only through the blood of Christ. That's all there is that's standing between you and the Father. . . and that's all you need. People find you to be more generally grace-filled than most. You are attractive to the faith, and usually a bit on the non-traditional side."

Well, I'd say that comes very close to summing it up. I am not sure my mistakes were "whoppers", but I am very much aware of my own depravity. I know that it is only by grace that I am saved, and that this grace is purely a gift from a Merciful Heavenly Father, who chose me in spite of my flaws.

Yet, even though I am constantly in awe of the grace of God, in my life, and in general, I can be exacting and determined to teach solid doctrine. Some would say I am a "prophet", in the Bill Gothard sense of the word. I love the Bible, and have little patience with those who just "love Jesus" and want to get along with everybody, regardless of what the Scriptures would say.

As far as being a bit on the non-traditional side, let's see. I have 12 children...I guess that is a bit strange. I have homeschooled since 1983, and although homeschooling is much more prevalent today than it was back then, still it is a small percentage of the population that practices it. I read theology books for fun, and am pursuing a Bachelor of Theology at the ripe old age of fifty. That is not exactly traditional, I guess.

So, if I were to classify myself as a book of the Bible, Ephesians would be it.

Ephesians 2:4 ¶ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Lord, thank You that you are rich in mercy, and that You brought me out of darkness into Your marvellous light. Thank You that I can delight in You each and every day. Help me to indeed be filled with grace when I interact with Your image-bearers. Keep me from being impatient, and help me to be slow to speak, quick to listen, and ready to encourage others to follow You.

In the precious name of Christ, I pray.

God's Providence

Parenting rebellious or wayward children is one of the most difficult things God calls us to do. I know. I am the mother of a couple of girls who turned their backs on all they had been taught, and strove to find life in relationships rather than in Christ.

I am here to remind parents that even when their precious children are in the throes of wicked, rebellious behaviour, God is still in control!

I wrote to one such mom:

"God is still in control. He has ordered your daughter's steps. She has lessons to learn that she can only learn while in rebellion, perhaps. It is easy for a parent to despair when their child does things that are contrary to everything they have taught, but you must learn to step back and see the big picture.

Look at the story of Esther. If I were Esther's mom, would I thinkthat it was a good thing for my daughter to be taken into a *harem*??? Would I think that her marriage to a pagan, brutal king was something to celebrate?Yet God was ordering her steps for a purpose.

God, in His perfect providence, gave Esther beauty above all of the other women. God caused the heart of the king to turn towards her. Mordecai, her uncle, "just happened" to be sitting in the gates and "just happened"to overhear a plot to kill the king, and was able to tell his niece,who just happened to be in a position to warn the king.When the king couldn't sleep, and asked for the record to be read tohim, his servant just happened to read the story relating to Mordecai.When the king decided to honour Mordecai, wicked Haman just happened to be in the court. The king just happened to decide to ask Haman what kind of honour should be bestowed on a man the king delights to honour!

Later, when Esther pointed out that wicked Haman was the one who planned to kill her and all her people, the king left the room in a fury. He just happened to come back in just as Haman had just happened to lose his balance and land on the Queen!

Read the book of Esther, and marvel at the Providence of God! Then remember that God is the same; He never changes. He is ordering the steps of your daughter, just as He has ordered all of your steps, all of my steps...and all for the good of those who love Him, of those who are the called according to His purpose!

We have gone through some very difficult trials with our older daughters, but I am here to tell you that God has blessed tremendously. He really does restore the years the locusts have eaten away. Christians who rebel and are led to repentance understand more of God's mercy and more of His grace. They stand in awe...Who is a Pardoning God like thee??? Or who has grace so rich and free?

Lord, thank You that You are in control. Thank You that nothing ever surprises You, and that You are always working in the hearts of the kings and the peasants, in order to bring what You have planned to fruition. You are a trustworthy Father, and all those who put their trust in You shall be kept safe.

Lord, You know the way that I take. You also know the path my children will walk on. I pray that You will lead them in an upright and godly path. I pray that You will pour out grace on their lives, and that each one will marry a godly spouse and raise up children that will shine like stars in the universe.

If any of my loved ones rebel, chastise them and bring them back, according to Your great mercy. Thank You that when they see the light, they will also see more of Your amazing grace. Your mercy endures forever!

In Christ,
Janet

Striving to be perfect? Under Bondage? It's All About Grace!

A friend wrote to me today, struggling with some issues at her church. She attends a good church. She does all of the "right things", she tells me, yet writes:

"So, why do I FEEL so bound? Why do I struggle so much to be perfect? I continually try to understand the"law and grace" issues in scripture. Recently, I have felt the burden so much that I was led to read andread and read scripture. I came away saying, we areunder GRACE! We are set free from the LAW! Praise be to God! I FELT so free and happy! I knew what Jesus meant when He said that His yoke is EASY. I didn't want to go out and sin. I wanted to honor the Lord with obedience and to serve Him all my life!"

This was my response to her:

It's all about grace, my friend. Anyone who says anything else is missing the boat, and ought to be pitied or taught. It really is all about grace.

Not only are we saved by grace, but we live by grace every single day. Remember, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (like menstrual cloths). Let that sink in for a minute. All (*ALL!*) of our *righteousnesses* - the good things we do, even the great things we do - are as filthy rags. There is nothing we can do to impress the Lord of glory. There is nothing we can do to earn more of His favour. He knows our frame. He knows we are weak, that we are sinners.

What hope is there then? Grace! He reached down and plucked us from the miry clay, where we were stuck, unable to move, not even wanting to get out of the mess. We LIKED it in there. Yet God, by His grace, sent His Son, His one and only Son, to die in our place, when we were fully deserving of death and punishment. He rescued us from the pit.

Not only that, but He saved us to accomplish good works. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 Now think about that. He knows our frame, that we are weak, that we fail continually, that apart from Him we can do nothing, yet He still graciously and kindly gives us things to do for Him.

We won't do them well. If we do them to the best of our ability, and we happen to be the best at that task or talent in the whole world, we still won't do them to His standards...we never can measure up. Even if we begin to be close to what Jesus can do (Ha! - impossible) the problem is that we will fail because we will begin to be proud of our accomplishments. (God hates pride!) We are undone.

THAT'S WHY we have to rely on grace. When we begin to understand the grace of God, we see that every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Our Heavenly Father never changes. He loves you, He loves me, He chose us from before the foundation of the world, fully knowing that we would be the worst of sinners, but graciously giving us life and health and tasks to do and people to love.

You need to get and read Jerry Bridges' book, Transforming Grace.

http://www.navpress.com/store/Product.asp?sku=0891096566&&mscsid=8P0DUDLLBV309LHDF5HSH840DLKN5Q03

Here is the blurb from the page above:

GRACE—IT'S NOT JUST FOR BEGINNERS

Funny how the exceeding riches of God's grace seem to run out the moment we're saved. From then on, we tend to base our relationship with Him on our performance rather than on His grace.

Of course, God continues to deal with us on the basis of His grace, whether or not we understand it. It's just that when we don't, we forgo the abundant freedoms that come from not having to measure up.

The product of over 10 years of Bible study, Transforming Grace is a fountainhead of inspiration and renewal that will show you just how inexhaustible and generous God's grace really is—you'll never be able to ask for too much, need too much, hope for too much, or even sin too much. Like a never-ending stream of ocean waves crashing on the shore, His grace "superabounds" toward you without measure.

It's only $10.99 at the following website:

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product/?item_no=96566&p=1010575

Don't let the legalists around you put you into a box. Don't let them dictate to you how you should live. Go to Jesus, read His word, seek His face, and worship Him only. He is the one Who loves you! He is the one who leads you day by day, step by step.

I think you may be misunderstanding your elder when he said:

... when we are saved we are given the ability to keep the law. That we are not UNDER the law in that we are not condemned by it but we are still to study the law and obey it.

At least I hope he wasn't putting you back under the law. Romans makes it clear that we cannot fulfil the law. We are saved by grace through faith. It is a gift.

So, yes, we are to love the law (because God wrote it) and to seek to follow the principles therein, but we are not bound by it, in that we are never condemned by not keeping the law. The law was put there to teach us that we cannot follow it. If we try to keep it, we will find that it is impossible. It is there to show us that we are sinners in need of salvation - and that is EXACTLY what God provided for us.

The Christian life should be a life of praise. We should strive to do right, knowing we will fail, and when we fail, we just run to our Father and confess it, knowing that He already knows and stands ready to forgive. Every single sin we have ever committed or ever will commit was put on (imputed to) Christ, and was paid for on that cross, by that shed blood. What marvelous grace! So, we don't have to fear, we don't have to feel like a failure...we just view ourselves as blessed Children of the Most High God. We praise Him continually -- when we do well, or when we don't. When we do well, we praise Him for His enabling grace, because apart from Him we can do nothing. When we fail, and sin, we praise Him for His grace, because when we confess our sins He is gracious and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9. When we do well, we confess that it is only by His grace, and if we see a bit of pride creeping in, we agree with God that it is wicked because it is not acknowledging the truth that without Him, we can do nothing. That leads us to see afresh the marvellous grace poured out on our lives!

Galatians 5:1 1 ¶ Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Don't let anyone, whether at your church or on an email group, take away your freedom in Christ. Don't be tangled up again under that terrible yoke!

In Christ,
Janet

Organizing

I spent the entire day organizing my desk. Now for a woman to spend that many hours organizing one little desk, said desk has got to be a dreadful mess.

I have to admit it was terrible. There were papers and books and cards and letters and bills and a calculator and pens and vocabulary cards and so on and so forth - clutter and mess. Sigh.

It is always my intention to be organized, to be consistent in decluttering and filing. However, I get busy and the next thing I know, there is a pile here and a boxful there. Part of my problem is that I like to KEEP things, just in case. I also am a lover of books, and can never bear to part with any of them. I tend to buy books at garage sales or secondhand book stores, and of course at conferences or special events. Most of my books are in good order on my very organized shelves(thanks to Linda!), but my desk often becomes a place to pile books I intend to read for my own pleasure or edification, as well as books I plan to read to the kids, or have them read.

I have been praying as I have organized my house, top to bottom. God does hear and answer prayer, often in unexpected ways. Matt and Joanna, for instance, spent the day after New Years' Day cleaning and organizing my living room. They got rid of the tree and all of the decorations, threw out junk, and rearranged the furniture. It looks terrific!

Then my dear friend Darlene sent some dressers she no longer had room for. They came exactly at the right time. I put them in my classroom and used them for storage. Two of the drawers hold hanging file folders - perfect! One thin drawer has all of my maps and posters. I used the top drawer for confiscated items (it is full of lego at the moment), and I have yet to fill two other drawers!

God is so good and so gracious. I looked at the disaster that I called a classroom at the beginning of the week, and I despaired, feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work that lay before me. But as we sorted and moved and cleaned and dusted and filed, my spirits have lifted and I really can visualize how great it will be to have the entire room in order. Our schedule will be far more easy to follow if we don't have to stop to look for that Latin book, or that set of math cards, or pencils and pens.

Now if I could only figure out how to post a picture, I'd show you what it looks like. But for now, I just am rejoicing as I sit at my CLEAN desk, and I am energized to finish up the last few things to get the rest of it done! YEAH!

Janet

Strange Choice

Dr. Henry Morgentaler was being interviewed on Canada AM this morning, regarding a movie, "Choice", that will be aired this evening, praising the virtue of this man who almost singlehandedly fought for abortion rights in Canada.

When he was asked what he thought of the movie, he tried defending his character by saying that he was disappointed that it didn’t show more of his personal life, because he believes that he is a good and gentle man. He mentioned that he is proud of his work, because he believes access to abortion is simply a matter of justice.

Then he said, "Crimes of violence have certainly decreased since the right to abortion in this country."

I stood, watching the television with my mouth open in disbelief. "Crimes of violence have DECREASED?" Pardon me?

It *may* be true (and I am not sure that it is) that a man is less likely to hit a woman if she is no longer carrying his unwanted baby, but (NEWS FLASH!!) crimes of violence happen every single time a baby is torn from his mother’s womb. I’d say that it is violent to cut off a limb, to crush a skull, to fill one’s environment with saline solution and burn one’s lungs out...these actions are violent beyond belief, and if done to an adult, or a child already fortunate enough to reside OUT of the womb rather than in it, then the so called "caregivers" would be prosecuted with the full extent of the law.

Morgentaler must be schizophrenic - he certainly thinks in a double-minded manner.
"I am a gentle man." Yet he has killed many thousands of babies. Our world is reeling at the devastation caused by the tsunami. People are saddened and moved to give generously, to pray, to even go to the stricken areas and serve -- yet far more babies have been destroyed through violently ripping them from their own mothers' wombs.

"I am proud of my work." What on earth is there to be proud of? He has enabled selfish women to live self-centredly rather than giving themselves selflessly to another person. Because of his work, there are abortion centres across our country, and hundreds of babies are killed every day. He ought to be ashamed of his work.

I do pray that the Lord will open the eyes of Canadian women to see that this man is not a gentle, kind, "saviour" who has enabled them to have "choice" to live their lives more easily. I pray that they will see that he is delusional, that he is no different from those who tortured prisoners during the holocaust, and that he should be filled with shame.

In Christ,
Janet